Six firsts at this year’s G20 Summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) members, some guest countries and international organizationsCredit:
Xinhua

14 September 2016 • 2:54pm

This year's G20 summit in Hangzhou produced some very progressive ideas for future global policy. Here are six events that took place for the first time.

The eleventh Group of 20 (G20) summit was held in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou. Themed “Building an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world,” the summit aimed to implement the consensus reached at former G20 summits, and stress innovation, reform and development.

The G20, which represents 85pc of global GDP, 80pc of international trade and 65pc of the world’s population, is considered one of the most influential platforms for global financial governance.

Let’s take a look at some “first-time” occurrences the G20 Summit created this year, offering up a new direction for the G20 cooperation mechanism.

1. China sets “breaking a new path for growth” as a key topic of this year’s summit, which marks the first G20 summit with a focus on the mid to long term impetus of global growth.

2. This year, G20 members gave priority to development in a global macro-policy framework and draft action plans for the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for the first time.

The UN 2030 Agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development GoalsCredit:
un.org

3. Identifying priority fields, guiding principles and index system for structural reform. This was the first time in G20’s history that members demonstrated the idea of addressing both symptoms and root causes to promote growth.

4. Setting out guiding principles for global investment policies. It was the first multilateral global investment rules framework, which is of pioneering significance.

Chinese President Xi Jinping presides over the opening ceremony of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in HangzhouCredit:
Xinhua

5. For the first time, green finance was included on the Group of 20 summit agenda, thanks to the efforts to make the financial sector contribute more to environmentally friendly economic growth around the globe.

A rice paddy painting of a logo of "G20 2016 CHINA" and a slogan "Go China Go, Flying High dreams" is displayed at a paddy field in YiwuCredit:
IC

6. The first Presidency Statement on Climate Change in G20’s history was released at the Sherpa Meeting in April, 2016, and China’s legislature completed domestic legal procedures for ratifying the Paris Agreement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (center), US President Barack Obama (right) and Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moonCredit:
Xinhua

This article was originally produced and published by China Daily. View the original article at chinadaily.com.cn